Posts Tagged ‘#occupyoakland’

In May, Rob “Reason” Silver, a part-time record producer from Oakland, and Jason Samel, the owner of a small insurance brokerage in New York, announced their nearly identical but independently conceived plans to bring a new element into the national Occupy protest—marketability. Both had come to the conclusion that there was potential within the anti-capitalistic, determinedly decentralized protest to sell a product that could help raise funds and draw in new supporters. In May, both men launched Occupy benefit albums.

Over the past month, protesters in hundreds of camps around the country have rolled out sleeping bags, set up food tents and trucked portable toilets into public spaces. Across the country, the reactions of city officials dealing with Occupy camps have ranged from supportive to baffled to downright angry.

The Community Rejuvenation Project (CRP), a nonprofit best known for large mural projects throughout Oakland, released a declaration on Tuesday decrying property destruction during last Wednesday’s general strike.

Tourettes Without Regrets is a monthly performance extravaganza of lewd audience contests, dirty haiku battles, and onstage improvisation. Reporter Dylan Bergeson takes a turn as a TWR judge to figure out what makes this raunchy vaudeville show so popular.

As protesters trickled out of the Port of Oakland Wednesday night, after Occupy Oakland demonstrations shut down business at the port, scores filed into a retrofitted former AC Transit bus for free rides back to the encampments in downtown Oakland.

The Occupy Wall Street movement began in September in New York City, and soon protesters were setting up camps in cities across the country. The Occupy Oakland camp was set up on the afternoon of October 10 and occupied the plaza in front of Oakland’s city hall for two weeks. On October 25, campers were evicted and since that morning, there have been a series of actions from both city officials and protesters. Click through the timeline to see the sequence of major events surrounding the Occupy Oakland movement.

Raw footage shows Wednesday night’s violent confrontation between police and Occupy Oakland protesters, which lasted into the early morning. The clash followed a day of general strike actions against banks and the Port of Oakland, which was shut down.

Occupy Oakland activists launched the first of three rallies at 14th and Broadway Wednesday morning, with Angela Davis and others speaking. Occupy Oakland, along with out-of-towners and employees from local unions, will meet at the intersection again Wednesday evening to converge on the Port of Oakland and attempt to shut it down.

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Since Occupy Oakland protesters announced they would hold a general strike on November 2, unions from across the city and the state have sent a flurry of endorsements in support of what they are referring to as a “day of action,” rather than a strike. In the final moments before Wednesday’s events, union organizers have been working to encourage members to participate.

The aftermath of Tuesday’s Occupy Oakland eviction escalated into a street confrontation in the city’s downtown, with tear gas and multiple arrests. The story unfolds in this video by Dylan Bergeson and Byrhonda Lyons.

There used to be grass here, but it didn’t last long―not after the bodies started multiplying and the make-shift community started growing. Now the space is covered in mud and heaps of hay. And a runaway pancake that slid off of someone’s blue-plastic plate. And a stray sock, and a boardwalk of planks. And feet. Hundreds of feet. This used to be Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, but not any more. Welcome to Occupy Oakland.

After police served Occupy Oakland campers an eviction notice last night, demonstrators took to the streets, marching in a circuit around Lake Merritt this morning, October 22. The march lasted about three hours and remained peaceful. It appeared to span a wide range of age, race, religious and political differences. When asked about the possibility of eviction, one man, who only gave his first name Ethan, said, “I’m not going to fight them, but I’m definitely not going to leave.”

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